EDITOR – THE fire season has just begun and the winds have already started blowing, threatening the lives of many who may fall victim to veld fires which are rife around this time of the year.
Year-in, year-out, huge tracts of vegetation are lost while property worth thousands of dollars is damaged and people burnt to death.
As the fire season begins, I would like to urge people across the country to desist from starting veld fires and exercise caution when putting out these fires.
The construction of fireguards must always be done between April and June before the fire season begins on July 31 to October 31.
Fireguards must already be in place by then.
Each District in the country has a fire guard demonstration project to assist people, especially farmers in constructing the standard fire guard.
Fireguards must be at least nine metres without inflammable material on either side of the boundary. This significantly helps to reduce veld fires.
Having these fireguards around paddocks, woodlots, homesteads, croplands and boundary fences helps protect property.
Acquiring knapsack sprayers or water sprayers, using counter burning methods, reducing fuel load by hay baling and beaters also helps in the process.
Veld fires are caused by opening up of arable land using fire, deliberate lighting of fires, gold panning, improper disposal of ash and clearing of vegetation for easy hunting, among other things.
It appears people do not really take into consideration the negative effects of the fires that they start.
Fires have destroyed flora and fauna which are critical to the success of tourism.
The fires also reduce soil fertility, in turn, compromising food security.
Listening to the weather on the fire danger index and having community fire alert systems in place is also important in efforts to minimise fire damages.
Please, let us protect our environment, property and lives.

Tinotenda Musarurwa
Gweru